With nauseating predictability, the usual political hacks clamor to compromise our Second Amendment every time some ghastly crime involving a firearm occurs.  Seldom if ever is attention paid to the workings of the twisted mind that actually caused the horrible event. 

A combination of ignorance and the desire to deceive has led to the inherent misnomer of the term "assault weapon."  Recent nuance has added the suffix "style" to the word "assault" — supposedly to add a hint of honesty to the expression, although a recent nominee to head the BATF was still unable to define what an assault weapon is.  I shall give it a try right here: a common military weapon, being a rifle that has selective fire options of single shot, bursts of three, and full-automatic.  It may also have enhanced magazine capacity and heat displacement.  Oh, and by the way, full-automatic weapons have not been legal for American civilians to possess for about a hundred years — except for people who have a Class Three federal firearms license.

Assault-style weapons are nothing more than single-shot, semi-automatic rifles that only look like actual military weapons...usually because they have a second grip for the shooter's other hand.  There may also be a heat shield around the barrel...whoopie!  So what's the big deal about how they look?  It's because political demagogues, whose arguments hardly have any substance, have to rely on superficiality to get their points across.

Another tactic used by those who are hostile to the Second Amendment is to grossly misinterpret what it says: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."  They fixate on the reference to the word militia and falsely conclude that the amendment pertains only to the National Guard.  Really?  At the Constitution's writing, militia meant just plain ordinary folks who could be called upon to muster in the event of an emergency — and they needed to bring their own weapons and ammunition — and there was then no such thing as a National Guard.  Some constitutional scholars also like to point out that, in the language of the document, the government has powers and the people have rights.  "The right of the people" excludes the government.

Another common fallacy claims that the only firearm the founders were aware of was the musket.  People had rifles and pistols then as well.  Rifles were more accurate than muskets and had greater range, but they were not a military weapon because they needed to be cleaned much more often than the smooth-bore muskets.  Shortly into the Civil War, rifles began to be used because of the invention of the Minié ball, which was cone-shaped and didn't do as much lead-fowling of the barrel.

Before the adoption of the Class Three federal license requirement, "Tommy" guns were sold in hardware stores and other places.  Introduced in 1918, they were nicknamed the "trench broom" by the doughboys fighting in France.  Not truly a rifle, since they fired pistol rounds, they were still quite popular.

The latest fad among the enemies of the Second Amendment has been to call for the banning of semi-automatic firearms.  Much like a double-action revolver, a semi-automatic weapon will fire a bullet with every complete pull of the trigger...but with noticeably less effort.  Such weapons have been available for over a hundred years.

There's also this pesky statistic that more Americans are punched and stomped to death than are killed by rifles.  Also, there are more gun suicides than murders — which may explain the current advertising blitz over gun suicide prevention — but such events, however unfortunate, are not accidents.  Guns may make it easier to kill, but they're not the reason. 

Speaking of causation, the recent spate of unfortunately sensational "mass" murders, in my opinion, is the result of focused media attention and the psychic dislocation caused by the government's overreaction to the COVID pandemic.  It can only be an opinion, since nobody has actually figured this out.  By the way, it also seems that stabbings are on the rise as well...in spite of the Second Amendment.

The problem is not inanimate mechanical devices.  It is human fallibility.  Murder has been against the law since Moses came down from the mountain, but it still hasn't stopped.  It may actually be getting worse, but diverting attention away from the essence of the problem doesn't help.  Yeah, blaming guns rather than the jerks who pull the triggers is much easier — but dealing with murder isn't supposed to be easy.

America used to be a lot cornier — and that was a good thing.  With the expansion of the welfare state, we have vastly increased the number of males who've grown up in fatherless homes.  Popular sociologic theory has it that females are compelled by biology to mature in mostly the proper way — whereas males need to be taught how to be an adult.  Without a father, young males are left to learn that on the street.  What could go wrong?  Sounds complicated, so let's blame guns instead.

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